“Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life.” -Mary Manin Morrissey

There was once a guy in my life, one that I loved, but he disappeared in the midst of the college world. We met at the end of freshman year, and we had a great run together. Although it was short, we always had a good time. Well, at least up until the end. That’s when it all became real. Once the excitement stopped and real life started to come into play, it was over. We both had jobs, school was about to start again, and I had volleyball practice every day. He started to pull away from me. We saw each other less and less, and when we were together, he was completely checked out. I was no longer his first choice. I was no longer on his priorities list; I was replaced by parties, drugs, & alcohol. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that he did not think there was anything wrong with that. Fight after fight, I was the “bad guy” for trying to shame and blame him for everything.

One day, I reached a conclusion that he was not good for me. He played with my mind, continuously pulling me in and then crushing me. Some days he acted like he cared, and others I wouldn’t even hear from him. We could go a week without seeing each other. But for some reason I could not get myself to break it off because there was a small part of me that thought I could save us. I was holding on to the guy he used to be, instead of the guy he was. But, that didn’t matter because he beat me to it. He came over to my house one day and ended it.

He took it upon himself to terminate our relationship, but then would continuously try to crawl back into my life. I’d try to get away, I’d try to get over him, but time after time he would tell me that he still cared about me, and that we just needed a break. I heard that a million times over the 7 months we were “friends”.

I never asked for this. When we broke up, I was destroyed. I felt like it was all my fault, I was the one to blame. Maybe if I had done something different, or was a better girlfriend none of this would have happened. But it’s taken me a long time to grasp that I had done everything in my power, and it just wasn’t enough. And that’s okay. But during those few months following our break up, I was so broken. Unfortunately, that caused me to fall again and again for him when I knew our relationship was toxic. That it was just fight after fight. I was trapped.

My mental health took a big hit from this. It felt like abuse. No one has ever made me feel as powerless as he did.

Over Christmas break, I finally gathered myself enough to do something about all of this. For my own good, I told him that this couldn’t go on any longer. He had his chance, and he missed it.

Yet again, he found a way back in. And this time it was worse. He manipulated me with his words. He told me all these wonderful things, and how much he had changed. He told me that he loved me. But soon after, it fell in a downward spiral. I began to think that the only reason he kept me in his life was to use me for his benefit. What truly opened my eyes is when I put everything together…and I feel like an idiot for taking this long to realize it. I was so blinded by my feelings to realize it all. But here were the facts:

He would ONLY invite me over at night before he went to bed.

He refused to do anything at all to pleasure ME, when all I did was pleasure him.

The longer time went on, the worse it got. At one point, he would just invite me over, get me to have sex with him, and once he was done, he would go to sleep.

Then, we almost completely stopped having sex. At first, whenever I was invited over at night, he would just vent to me about his life and then go to bed, which I didn’t mind because I like helping people through things because I know how hard it can be. But then, it turned into something else. When I’d come over, he would have already turned the lights off and be laying in bed. He’d have me join him and then try to “start things” with me. But if I went with it and we started kissing, he’d shove medown to his penis to give him a blow job. And if I didn’t want to do anything that night, he would continue to coerce me until I did.

But again. whenever I tried to bring anything up, he would find a way to turn it around and make me feel worse. He continued to play games with my emotions. But I finally had enough and I blocked him on social media.

This whole process has been excruciatingly hard for me. And even though I pushed him out of my life, he still finds ways to make me feel bad about myself by trying to make himself look like the good guy. One thing I learned from this experience is that words and actions are two very different things. He was two different people, he was great with his words, but never showed me that he cared with his actions.

Even when he isn’t contacting me, just seeing his house or car reminded me of all the hurt he has caused me.

I don’t know how to deal with everything going on, I am in a constant state of pain.

Now I’m more scared than ever to be alone again because I’m worried that I will just be taken advantage of. He was not the first, and I fear he won’t be the last.

He had control over me. If I did anything he disapproved of, especially when it came to my friends of the opposite sex, he would get extremely angry at me and would shut me out for the rest of the day or longer.

I care too much, it is one of my biggest flaws. To this day, I still haven’t let go of the thought of who he used to be. Who we used to be. I can’t get myself to completely let go. And it hurts every time. I need to take Mary Manin Morrisseys advice, I need liberation.